The Story of Adele H. Movie Review

Adele H. is Adele Hugo, daughter of Victor, the famed French writer. Her story -- and yeah, that's a pretty explanatory title -- is that she moved to Canada, fell in love with a British soldier who didn't love her back, and went crazy as she wrote a diary about this in her own secret language. A 20-year-old Isabelle Adjani makes for a comely and appropriately unhinged leading lady, but there is curiously little material here for her -- or anyone -- to work with. Shot in the dead center of director François Truffaut's career, this is a frivilous curiosity for Truffaut and Hugo scholars... but little more. That it's a true story is utterly beside the point -- there's not enough "story" for us to care. But here's what I don't get though: If Adele wrote her crazy diary in a made-up language, how did anyone manage to translate it into a movie?

Aka L'Histoire d'Adèle H.